Traditional system architectures for computing platforms, and mobile systems in particular (such as smart phones, tablet computers, wearable devices, and others), have a monolithic, vertical design in which execution of applications stored on the file system, device drivers, and software stacks, is controlled by the operating system kernel. A consequence of traditional system architectures is the co-location of the software into a single environment, resulting in several million lines of software code for a single system. A direct result is a highly complicated, co-mingled architecture in which it is extremely difficult to identify, mitigate and correct vulnerabilities. A security issue raised by a software application running on the device can therefore impact the entire system. As a consequence, it can be challenging to reliably and consistently maintain the security of the execution environment in these traditional, overly complex systems.
The potential security risks posed by the “openness” of certain architectures (e.g., ANDROID) and by the downloading of third-party software are well-documented. The risks are even more pronounced when a computing device is used for multiple different, potentially conflicting purposes. Such may be the case in the “bring your own device” (BYOD) context in which computing devices, and more particularly, mobile computing devices, are used for both business and personal matters. These and other issues have spawned a “mobile device management” (MDM) industry.
Virtualization technology has long been a component of data center and desktop computing. Efforts are being made to apply virtualization technology to mobile devices. Proponents of mobile device virtualization believe that the technology can accelerate the development and deployment of new mobile device software at a lower cost. However, security risks exist whether a traditional monolithic or virtualized architecture is used.